EAST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, located at the corner of EUCLID AVE. and Prospect (Shaw) Ave. in EAST CLEVELAND, organized in April 1900 from the merger of the Congregational Union of Cleveland, the Congregational City Missionary Society (1892), and the Free Congregational Church of Euclid. Free Congregational had been organized 4 July 1852 by a small group of members of the First Presbyterian Church of Euclid (later FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF EAST CLEVELAND) who wanted to take a more active stand against slavery. The Congregational City Missionary Society met in a frame schoolhouse (on the later site of Shaw High School) before moving to a stone chapel completed on 21 Oct. 1900 at Euclid and Page avenues, on a site acquired in 1894.
The first pastor of East Congregational, Rev. William H. Pound (1900), served about a year; Rev. Herman F. Swartz succeeded him (1901-06). In 1931 East Congregational Church merged with MAYFLOWER CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, creating the EAST CLEVELAND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.